This invention relates to handgun sighting devices, particularly to handgun sighting devices that project a laser beam and that are adapted to form an integral part of a handgun.
In law enforcement, it is generally desirable to employ sighting devices in conjunction with handguns in order to optimize officers' targeting accuracy. Sighting devices that project laser beams are particularly desirable because, when the handgun is fired within a predetermined range, the laser beam can accurately target the impact point of the bullet by illuminating a spot on the targeted person or thing. Use of such a sighting device optimizes targeting accuracy under the adverse conditions commonly encountered when police officers are called on to fire their handguns, thereby lessening the likelihood of unintended injury to bystanders by an inaccurately fired bullet.
Prior sighting devices employing lasers have been in the nature of "add-on" structures attached to regulation handguns in an obtrusive and ungainly manner. Often, the devices hinder insertion of the handguns to which they are attached in a regulation holster. Moreover, the devices are easily damaged or unintentionally disengaged from the handgun unless substantial care is diligently exercised. These prior sighting devices have also been difficult to adjust with respect to the targeting range and, even when properly adjusted, the adjustment can be readily lost as a result of daily, often rigorous, police activities. These prior sighting devices have often had limited application to handguns having either metal frames or polymer frames, but not both.
The present application is an improvement to U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,235 (the "Toole '235 Patent") issued Jan. 12, 1993 to Toole, incorporated by reference herein. The pistol sighting device disclosed in the incorporated reference overcomes the disadvantages of prior sighting devices to a large extent by providing a sighting device which is substantially integral with a pistol or similar weapon so as to avoid obtrusive parts and which is easily and accurately adjustable. The sighting device has a laser device that is integrally positioned on the forward, substantially vertical portion of the pistol's trigger guard, mounted thereon using a universal positioning means. The sighting device's power supply is located within the rearward side of the pistol's handgrip behind the magazine well thereof, in a compartment provided by removing excess material at the back of the handgrip to complete an elongated recess in substantially parallel relation to the magazine well. The power supply is connected to the sighting device's laser device by a cable that extends from the power supply to the laser device through grooves and bores drilled in the handgrip and the trigger guard of the pistol. Accordingly, the sighting device is limited in that its integration in a handgun requires substantial milling and drilling in order to connect the power supply to the laser device.
Because prior sighting devices that project laser beams have inherent limitations, a need exists for an improved handgun sighting device.